ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

Creating a New Order

How did we go from this?

American and Soviet Troops meeting and shaking hands after taking Germany.

NB. This photo was not candid but actually staged

To this…

Cold War Propaganda Poster – 1950s

Map of Europe – WW2

Map of WW2 – changes of the country borders during WW2

http://www.worldology.com/Europe/world_war_2_imap.htm

Berlin is invaded, Hitler commits suicide. The Allies have won the war.

On May 7th 1945: Germany officially surrenders. This results in Victory in Europe.

Churchill sits at the entrance to Hitler’s bunker

World War Two Conferences

Towards the end of World War Two there were several conferences held between ‘The Big Three’. ‘The Big Three’ were:

President Franklin Roosevelt, USA Joseph Stalin, USSR Prime Minister Winston Churchill, UK

These conferences were discussing the following issues:

The State of the War The Status of Germany, Poland, Eastern Europe and

Japan The United Nations

The Big Three: Joseph Stalin

Timeline1879: Born in Georgia, son of a cobbler1899: Expelled from priests’ training college for revolutionary views1902-17: Joined the Bolsheviks, and was imprisoned and exiled several times for revolutionary activities1917: Took part in the Bolshevik Revolution and became Commissar of Nationalities1922: Became General Secretary of the Communist Party1924-29: After Lenin’s death, began to take over the leadership defeating Trotsky and his supporters, who opposed Stalin’s policy of ‘Socialism in one Country’1928-37: Collectivised Russia’s agriculture causing famine and great suffering without making farming efficient1932: Suicide of his wife Nadya1934-39: Removes rivals and those suspected of disloyalty in the great purge1941-45: Became Prime Minister and led the Russian forces to victory against Germany1945-48: Established the Communist satellite states of Eastern Europe1945-53: Organised post-war reconstruction. Continued his strict rule of the Russian people behind the Iron Curtain

The Big Three – Franklin RooseveltTimeline

1882: Born in New York State, into a wealthy familyAttended Harvard University1905: Married but had several affairs throughout his life1908: Became a lawyer1911: Became a Democrat state politician1913: Appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy1928: Became Governor of New York1933-45: President of the United States1930s: Created ‘New Deal’ to provide welfare relief for unemployed and to recover the economy1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbour but Roosevelt decides to prioritise defeating NazisMarch 1945: Dies of a brain haemorrage

The Big Three – Winston ChurchillTimeline1874: Born at Blenheim Palace, the son of a Conservative politicanAttends Harrow, a very famous private school, then joins the military as an officer1900: Elected as a Conservative politician1906: Moves to the Liberal party1915: Initiates Gallipoli campaign, and resigns afterwards1917: Becomes Minister of Munitions1921: Becomes Minister of Colonies1924: Becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer1940: Becomes British Prime Minister1945: July – resigns as PM1951: Becomes British PM again1955: Resigns as PM again, remains a politician1964: Resigns from politics1965: Dies from a stroke

Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 The conference took place in July 1944, but did not

become operative until 1959, when all the European currencies became convertible.

Purpose Established the IMF and IBRD “The nations should consult and agree on international

monetary changes which affect each other. They should outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to world prosperity, and they should assist each other to overcome short-term exchange difficulties.”

The IBRD was created to speed up post-war reconstruction, to aid political stability, and to foster peace.

Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 Main terms of the agreement:

Formation of the IMF and IRBD (presently part of the World Bank)

Adjustably pegged Foreign exchange market rate system: The exchange rates were fixed.

Currencies were required to be convertible for trade related and other current account transactions.

All member countries were required to subscribe to the IMF’s capital.

The Yalta Conference, 1945

February 1945The ‘Big Three’ agreed on:

Russia would help fight Japan once Germany had surrendered

Germany divided into four zones: American, French, British and Soviet

Hunt down and punish war criminals responsible for genocide

Liberated countries could choose their ideology

All would join the United Nations Organisation to be established after the war

Eastern Europe would be seen as a ‘soviet sphere of influence’

Stalin

Roosevelt

Churchill

World War Two Conferences

Crucial Developments between Yalta and Potsdam Conferences:

President Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was replaced by Truman, who was to adopt a more hardline, or ‘get tough’, policy towards the Soviets.

Germany finally surrendered unconditionally on 7 May 1945. Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party lost the 1945 UK

general election and Churchill was succeeded as Prime Minister by the Labour Party leader, Clement Atlee.

As the war in Europe ended, the Soviet Red Army occupied territory as far west as deep inside Germany

On the very day after the Potsdam Conference began, 17 July 1945, the United States successfully tested its first atomic bomb.

The Potsdam Conference, 1945

Held in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam. The following issues emerged:

Disagreement over what to do with Germany. Stalin wanted to cripple it. America wanted to inject funds into the economy so as not repeat problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty

Stalin wanted compensation for damage to Russia. Truman disagreed.

Truman disagreed with Yalta plan allow Russia to have influence of Eastern Europe

The Potsdam Conference ended without agreement on these issues.

Clement Atlee

Harry Truman

The Division of Germany

The Potsdam Conference in 1945 divided Germany into four zones, each to be governed by one of the victorious powers; USSR, USA, France and Britain.

The intention behind this was to prohibit Germany from once again rising as a military threat in Central Europe.

How was Germany Divided

British OccupationZone

French Occupation Zone

American Occupation Zone

Soviet Occupation Zone

Berlin

What about Berlin?

French Zone

British Zone

American Zone

Soviet ZoneAlthough Berlin was in the Soviet Zone it was also divided into four regions. One for each of the victors of World War 2. In order to access these zones the allied powers needed the acquiescence of the Soviets. Specific roads and railway lines were given to the Western Powers to allow passage through Soviet-controlled Germany to supply their sectors in Berlin

The Long Telegram

In February 1946, a key U.S. diplomat in Moscow, George F. Kennan, sent a telegram to the U.S. State Department on the nature of Soviet conduct and foreign policy.

It detailed the nature of the Soviet Union in a post-WW2 world and how the US may go about relating to them. George F. Kennan

The Long Telegram

“…At bottom of Kremlin's neurotic view of world affairs is traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity. Originally, this was insecurity of a peaceful agricultural people trying to live on vast exposed plain in neighbourhood of fierce nomadic peoples. To this was added, as Russia came into contact with economically advanced West, fear of more competent, more powerful, more highly organized societies in that area. But this latter type of insecurity was one which afflicted rather Russian rulers than Russian people; for Russian rulers have invariably sensed that their rule was relatively archaic in form fragile and artificial in its psychological foundation, unable to stand comparison or contact with political systems of Western countries. For this reason they have always feared foreign penetration, feared direct contact between Western world and their own, feared what would happen if Russians learned truth about world without or if foreigners learned truth about world within. And they have learned to seek security only in patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power, never in compacts and compromises with it…”

The Long Telegram

The key points of Kennan’s telegram were: The USSR’s view of the world was a traditional

one of insecurity The Soviets wanted to advance Muscovite

Stalinist ideology (not simply ‘Marxism’). The Soviet regime was cruel and repressive and

justified this by perceiving nothing but evil in the outside world. That view of a hostile outside environment would sustain the internal Stalinist system.

The USSR was fanatically hostile to the West – but they were not ‘suicidal’.

Your Task – You take (non-nuclear) action

Acting as either:

OR

Write a response to the long telegram

President Harry Truman

Premier Joseph Stalin

Russia’s Liberations of Eastern Europe

After countries were liberated from Nazis, instead of withdrawing their troops, Russia left them their. By July 1945, Stalin’s troops controlled the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.Refugees were fleeing in fear of Communist takeover.

“This war is not as in the past: whoever occupies a territory also imposes on it his own social system. Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army has power to do so. It cannot be otherwise.”

Stalin

Russia’s Liberation of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe: Behind the Iron Curtain

Becomes a Communist ‘satellite’ zone, a buffer between Russia and the West.

Also known as the Communist Bloc The name ‘Iron Curtain’ came from a

speech by Winston Churchill

The Iron Curtain Speech

By 1946, Soviet-dominated Communist governments were set up in: Poland Hungary Romania Bulgaria

This was in spite of the hopes expressed at Yalta that there would be free and democratic elections in Eastern Europe after the war.

Communist regimes not directly linked to Moscow had been established in Albania and Yugoslavia as well.

His speech was also prompted by the presence of the Red Army in those countries ‘liberated’ from Germany by the Russians – and by the cloak of secrecy which descended over Eastern Europe within a few months of the end of the war.

Soviet Response – Joseph Stalin

The response from the Soviet leadership was quick and one of outrage.

Within a week Stalin had compared Churchill to Hitler. Stalin saw the speech as both ‘racist’ and as ‘a call to

war with the Soviet Union’ Within three weeks the Soviets had taken several

steps: Withdrew money from the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) They stepped up the tone and intensity of anti-Western

propaganda The initiated a new five-year plan of self-strengthening

Mr X Article

In July 1947 a mysterious article appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs, attributed only to ‘Mr X’. It soon became public knowledge that the author was George Kennan. Given his new role as Head of the State Department’s new Policy Planning Staff, it gave the article the aura of official administration policy toward the Soviet Union.

Mr X Article

From Kennan’s ‘Mr X’ article, ‘The Sources of Soviet Conduct’ in Foreign Affairs, July 1947:“The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies…it will clearly be seen that the Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the western world is something that can be contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and manoeuvres of Soviet policy”